Still reeling from the shows by Mississippi Heat and by Mike Goudreau, the festivities for Viree Blues Boreale’s 10th anniversary keep moving with a 20th edition totally made of double-headers! This next new concept show will bring together on stage for the first time two beloved couples of the Canadian Blues scene. Two "Grandes Dames" of the Blues, great performers and party girls, with their Partners, which will bring this show to a total of three of the best guitarists on the Canadian Blues scene. An intimist party all in Blues with none other than Angel Forrest & Denis Coulombe and Andree Dupree & Jean Millaire with a very special guest, Ricky Paquette.
Angel Forrest is one of the most sought after artists by the fans of Viree Blues Boreale since our very first edition. And rightly so! A "Grande Dame" of the Blues, recipient of seven Lys Blues Awards, among which `Female Blues Artist of the Year ... 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014`, and also of a Maple Blues Award for “Female Vocalist of the Year 2013". With 30 years of international career in Canada, Europe, Mexico, Japan and Morocco, this artist often compared to Janis Joplin and to Melissa Etheridge always has the Blues running through her life and her music. After a short spell in the pop for two albums, Angel Forrest is back strong to the Blues with her sixth album out in 2010. Electrifying, fiery and passionate, she is an artist who sings with all her body and soul like only she knows how. More entrancing than ever with her powerful and husky voice, everybody is attracted by Angel Forrest’s charisma. She sings, her songs charms everyone; they’ve got a Blues Roots aroma, heavy with emotions ... her unique way! Her seventh album “Mother Tongue Blues” proclaimed Best Blues Album of the Year at the 2014 Lys Blues and a nominee at the Maple Blues Awards 2013 as well as her opus eight, “"LIVE" LOVE at the palace”, launched less than a year after the seventh were both acclaimed by the critic as well as by Blues fans.
Angel will be performing with her Partner, Denis Coulombe, a real virtuoso on the six-string, with a perfectly complementary voice; he may stay a little in the background but he’s very impressive, even in that role! A major element of every recording as well as every show of the past 15 years almost, he was awarded the Lys Blues for “Best Musical Performance for 2014".
Having left the Blues aside to concentrate more on Rock Projects among which The HeavyWeight Jam, Rocksmith, Retrophonic and Martin Deschamps, the Outaouais kid prodigy, Ricky Paquette now also performing as Ricky Laurent is honouring us with a return to the Blues, to his previous identity, especially for this very occasion, to come back to his roots, to his public of his early years, to celebrate Viree Blues Boreale’s 10th anniversary with old friends! Having won over the region’s public at 13, at the beginning of the 2000's, this extremely talented “Guitar Hero” worked with Martin Deschamps, Trevor Finlay, Steve Hill, Bob Walsh, Jimmy James, Nanette Workman, Trudy Lynn (Texas), Breen Leboeuf, Eric Lapointe, Jean Millaire, Jim Zeller, Bob Stagg, Guy Belanger and also with Paul Deslauriers. He is coming back on the stage of Viree Blues Boreale, for one night only with the high spirit, the energy, the emotion and the exceptional performances on guitar that he’s known for.
Our other guest is one of those artists who left their mark and even influenced the Canadian music scene; a mainstay on the Blues scene, on Canada’s music scene and on the francophone music scene, he is one composer whose melodies can get at us. His guitar solos often become tunes that we’d like to keep humming and that carry strong emotions without him trying to squeeze millions of notes in a single frame. Jean Millaire: top performances on the radio, on many major stages and musical events, a great composer and performer. From his beginnings in 1968 with Expedition, he went on to a two year American tour with the Shakey Al Band (William Allen Werneken) together with a young harmonicist named Jim Zeller, they shared the limelight with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Willie Dixon, Muddy Watters, John Lee Hooker and Luther Allison. And he keeps on travelling with the English singer Murray Head. His career summits were for sure his 8 months with Offenbach and mostly the summer of 1979, the start of Corbeau. This cult group, Pierre Harel, Marjo, Willie Lamothe, Roger “Wezo” Belval and, for sure, Jean Millaire have recorded five excellent albums, namely Corbeau, Fou, Illégal, Visionnaire and Dernier Cri. Then, The Johnny Blues Band was born in 1984 after Corbeau’s disbanding. It’s also around that time that he started to work with the now famous Marjo, former singer of Corbeau, in her solo career During the 2000s, he mostly worked with Jim Zeller, Nanette Workman and Carl Tremblay on stage and on their respective albums. That’s also when he started his collaboration with our other guest, Andree Dupree; they decided to team up their talents and tour the Canadian Blues roads.
Andree Dupree was first trained as a nurse and only discovered the Blues at 25. In 1994, she started her own group, Wiseblood, influenced by the likes of Stevie RayVaughan, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Hendrix, C.C.R., B. B. King and Eric Clapton. Along the way, while performing a lot, she started writing her first album, "Enchanteuse", published in 2003. With her unique voice, warm, mellow and impressive she explores a Blues sometimes husky then caressing. Since meeting Jean Millaire in 2005, they perform their Blues, sometimes in a rock style that earned them to be nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year at the Lys Blues and for "Complices", their first opus from 2012. This stage pro performs with energy. You will fall for this rockin’ Blues performer right from her first song!
Angel Forest, Denis Coulombe, Andrée Dupree, Jean Millaire and Ricky Paquette come together for one show only, to carry on with you the festivities of Viree Blues Boreale’s 10th anniversary, Wednesday October 29th 2014, around 8h00 p.m. at the famous bar Le Petit Chicago, 50 Promenade du Portage, in the Old-Hull sector. Tickets are now on sale at: www.ticketpicket.com/ForrestMillaire and, naturally, will be available at the door for a mere 20$. You can find further information on our guests at: www.angelforrest.ca and at: www.lenetblues.com/jeanmillaire.html. For inquiries and to arrange interviews, please do contact Alexandre Petit at: info@vireeblues.ca. You should also care to visit our site which provides you with links to all of our guests’ sites as well as lots of other interesting information at: www.vireeblues.ca.. Be sure to be part of the facebook event for this show at: www.facebook.com/events/545403535595900/ and most importantly, do join us on our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/vireeblues.
